Who’s the Next Reality TV FD?

It could be you!

I received a call today from Lucky Dog Films looking for a Funeral Director to star in their new Reality TV Show.  Here are the details:

Do you think your family business and the business of running your family might make for compelling TV? We are looking for an ordinary family with an extraordinary lifestyle that is willing to let cameras into their world and to share their everyday lives with us – imagine, the real life “Six Feet Under”!

Lucky Dog Films is developing a new series for TLC and we are looking for a family made up of eccentric, fun and interesting characters. If you think we are describing you, please send a small tape introducing your family and showing us your home and funeral home. No more than 5 minutes please.

Send your submissions by July 1, 2009 to:
Lucky Dog Films, LLC
7600 Wisconsin Avenue
7th Floor
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Info@luckydogfilm.com

We will not be able to return any submissions sent to us.

Hey, if you make it – don’t forget good ol’ Hepp!

Create Your Own Wire Service

Funeral Industry Technology: As a follow up to the Funeral Facebook Formula class in May, I showcased my “Information Gathering Dashboard” and I promised that I would make a video on how you can create one for yourself – here it is…
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Best Practices for Funeral Directors to use Facebook

When I was young and visiting my Grandparents at the family funeral home – EganFuneralHome.com in Bolton, Ontario – I would spend a lot of time with him walking into town, going to the post office and running other errands.  I was always amazed about how many people knew him and that he knew them.  His success – just like other past generation Funeral Directors – could be attributed to being a helpful member of community, whether professionally or in other activities. They knew, they liked him, and when they needed his services, they could trust him.

Since life is different nowadays and there are a lot less people in the “social hubs” than there was 50 years ago, it doesn’t mean that you have to go to the same places that Gramps hung out – he was where the people were.  You should apply the same philosophy – Go To Where The People in Your Community Are!

Now, I’m not saying quit all of the groups that you are currently involved with – but you should take some quick inventory on your time invested vs. the exposure and reach that you get.

If you think that I am just pushing this Facebook stuff on you because I am a bit of a techie – you’re wrong.  I’m trying to tell you that it is probably one of the biggest networks in your town and you need to be there!

Do you know how many people in your market are on Facebook? Would you be surprised that I could tell you exactly how many to the individual, gender, age? It’s easy to find out – and also you can advertise so directly it would blow you away!

But before we get into my Funeral – Facebook Formula, you have to make sure that you have the basic foundation of Facebook Profiles and Pages.  So we are going to build off of the 7 Mistakes Funeral Directors make with Facebook article, I want to outline what the Best Practices are for Funeral Directors for using Facebook.

The purpose of this “Best Practices” is to cut through all of the noise and give you the straight goods and short-cut the learning process for you as I teach you to nurture your online relationships to build your community, increase your credibility and visibility because people want to do business with people that they Know, Like, and Trust – Facebook can help you achieve that!

I don’t want Facebook to be a new time-waster although I must warn you: if you are new to Facebook, it is easy to get sucked in, connecting with old friends, checking photos, playing games, taking quizzes, etc. Anyway, after the initial rush wears off, it will be back to business – relationship building business that is!

This Best Practices is really going to get you up and running, but when you want to kick it into hi-gear, you should check out my Funeral – Facebook Formula seminar <– Click for more information

Before we get into the Nuts & Bolts, we need to know the difference between Profiles and Pages.

Facebook Profile Pros

• You can have one-on-one interaction
• You create a feeling of a more personal connection
• You gain “perceived” credibility with more Friends
• Your Friends can message you (pro from their perspective)
• You can be Tagged in photos and videos and appear automatically (sometimes good)

Facebook Profile Cons

• You need to have mutual agreement for friending
• People must be Facebook members and logged in to view
• You can’t message all friends  at once or you could get banned
• You are limited to 5,000 friends
• You could get inundated with messages in your Inbox
• You can be Tagged in photos and videos and appear automatically (sometimes bad)

Facebook Fan Page Pros

• You can have an unlimited number of fans
• You have the ability to message an entire group
• Your page can be accessed by the public (no Facebook login required + it can be indexed by Google (see naming below)
• Your Page appears in homepage stream which is a great way to remind your Friends about updates and new content
• People have opted in to hear updates about your business, unlike your profile

Facebook Fan Page Cons

• It is sometimes hard to get people to become Fans
• The term “Fan” is a little weird, especially when applied to a Funeral Home
• Doesn’t feel like a personal connection
• You don’t have the same personal relationship as you only post as the “Business” not as yourself

Ok, now that we know some of the differences, let’s build both a Profile and a Page – leveraging the Pros to our advantage.

Profile Set Up – Phase 1 (1 hour):

1. Select an appropriate photo: one that best connects you to your audience
2. Upload Contacts from Email Accounts / Outlook: (I skip the “Invite Others To Facebook”)
3. Complete the Profile information: make it as complete as possible but keep within your comfort level.
4. Complete Education and Work Profile Information: this makes it easier for your old contacts to find you
5. List all of your websites under contact information
6. Create Memorable Web Address
7. Upload Contacts from Email Accounts / Outlook

Profile Set Up – Phase 2 (1 to 2 hours + ongoing):

1. Search Friends’ Friends List
2. Search Groups and Fan Pages for possible contacts: You don’t even have to join the group – just see who the members are. But join if you think that it would be valuable
3. Search Your Competitor’s Friends: click on the View Friends link and add any friends that you think would be appropriate to friend

Notes: When entering a website address (URL) make sure that you use the “http://” before the www… as that will make the link clickable.

Fan Page Set Up – Phase 1

1. Choose the Category > Local > Event Planning Service OR Professional Service
2. Choosing the Right Name – Place Important Keywords together with your company’s name such as ‘Your Town’ Funeral Homes (unless that is a competitor’s name) | Your Funeral Chapel (see McCall’s example)
3. Upload your logo or an appropriate photo – make sure that it is recognizable and if possible, have some personality
4. Complete the Edit Information
5. Upload Photos and Tag yourself or staff members if appropriate
6. Upload Videos – How To and FAQ videos would be preferred over commercials – again you are trying to build a relationship, not to sell anything (don’t exclude commercials – just limit them)
7. Add Links to helpful information from your website
8. Suggest To Friends – Be selective to who you invite at the beginning until you really have your page “super-charged”

Please remember, Facebook Pages and How Funeral Homes Can Use Facebook are a Work in Progress, these are some general best practices (for now). Here are some examples of Facebook Pages that you can use as a guide to creating your Page:

• http://companies.to/mccallbros
• http://companies.to/rmdfuneralhome
• http://companies.to/maquoketaareaobituaries
• http://companies.to/johnsonconsulting
• http://companies.to/funeralfuturist

There are others that I would have like to list but they haven’t used the “Memorable Page” application.

If you are interested in learning how to USE Facebook for your funeral business, I know you will get a lot out of my Funeral Home – Facebook Formula seminar that is going to be held Thursday, May 28. Replays will be available if you can’t make it.  This seminar is going to be the first of my monthly training course called: FuneralFuturistU – Internet Marketing for Funeral Professionals.  For more information and registration details visit: www.FuneralFacebookFormula.com.

7 Mistakes Funeral Directors Make with Facebook

It seems like Funeral Directors are going “Facebook Crazy” – every day I am receiving friend requests from Funeral Directors and seeing Funeral Homes creating profiles, pages, and groups.

The problem is that I see a ton of mistakes being made – most inadvertently because there is not a lot of direction and guidance available on HOW to use Facebook properly for the Funeral Industry.

There is no Best Practices for Funeral Homes and Facebook (not yet anyway) but I have been really digging deep into what IS the best way for funeral directors to harness the power of Facebook from a Relationship & Loyalty Building (Marketing) strategy without crossing the line of doing business in a social community.

You have heard me say it before – and this won’t be the last time – the funeral industry is a “relationship business” where people serve people and buildings, cars, and merchandise are secondary.  When my Great-Grandfather started the undertaking business, and my Grandfather took it over – they built it on building relationships within their community. They did this by being involved in various networks of the day – Church, Lodge,  Rotary, Town Council, etc.  Fast forward 75 years and networks within communities are still very important – they may be the same networks as they used to be or may be different ones.

Even though Facebook is a virtual community, it is growing faster than any other network of people in your community.  Let’s take a look at some of the numbers (Source CheckFacebook.com as of May 18, 2009 – pretty current eh!):
Global Audience: 192,406,840

1. United States 60,989,380
2. United Kingdom 17,839,940
3. Canada 11,443,520
4. Turkey 9,531,440
5. France 9,510,400
6. Italy 9,424,120
7. Australia 5,599,000
8. Colombia 4,568,280
9. Chile 4,504,560
10. Spain 4,478,380

United States Age Distribution:

• 18 – 24: 30.6% (18,338,140)
• 25 – 34: 27.6% (16,535,280)
• 35 – 44: 17.7% (10,592,180)
• 14 – 17: 10.2% (6,089,780)
• 45 – 54: 8.4% (5,023,380)
• 55 – 65: 3.6% (2,164,420)
• 65+: 1.4% (861,340)
• 0 – 13: 0.6% (348,340)

The 55 and over crowd have over 3 million members in the US. For perspective if this group of 55+ Facebook users were a city – it would be the 3rd largest between LA and Chicago.

One last thing before I get into the 7 Mistakes Funeral Directors make with Facebook is that there are more females on Facebook than men:

• Females: 57.4% (34,657,940)
• Males: 42.6% (25,677,840)

We know women make more buying decisions than men and we have also been told that women regard relationships as very important (hopefully us guys have figured that out by now).

7 Mistakes Funeral Directors Make with Facebook

1. Not On Facebook Yet: Sign Up For Facebook
   • Please see the stats above – if you’re not on Facebook yet, I included those stats for you – don’t worry, it’s not too late, sign up today
   • When you do sign up, please add me as a friend: http://profile.to/robinheppell/
2. Non-Passionate Status Updates: “Monday again, Hump Day, TGIF, Work Sucks” plus others that I can’t repeat
   • I know that it’s not all about work, but as funeral professionals we are always in the public eye – even online; keep the venting to private conversations – you never know if a family member can see your status even when your privacy settings are set
3. Not Showing Families How to Add Obits to Their Profile: Let family members promote your online obits to their Facebook community
   • Whether you have a Facebook profile or not you can harness the power of Facebook to drive traffic to your online obituaries by teaching families how to add their loved one’s obit into their profile so that all of their friends can see it, and then go to your site to leave a condolence
   • When I look at my clients’ Google Analytics (website stats) I am amazed that Facebook is usually in the Top 5 Referrers category
   • Sample from McCallBros.com: Add An Obituary To Facebook
4. Creating a PROFILE for the Funeral Home instead of  a PAGE: Profiles are for People and Pages are for Businesses
   • If you have your Profile as your Funeral Home and not you personally, here’s what you do:
     • Create a Profile under your Personal name and once you have built up your profile, then invite all of the Friends from the first profile to your new one
     • Create a Page under the Funeral Home name and copy all of the pertinent information over – then once it is established you can start to invite people to become a “Fan”
5. Not “Claiming” your Memorable Web Address for your Profile and Business Page: Do not let your competitor “Claim Your Name”
   • Here are my Memorable Web Addresses:
     • Robin Heppell (Profile): http://profile.to/robinheppell/
     • FuneralFuturist.com (Page): http://companies.to/funeralfuturist/
6. Having A “Profile” Picture that is Too STIFF: Is your profile picture with you in your “Stripes” or other Funeral Attire?
   • You want to connect with your “Community” – the more they can relate to you (as a parent, spouse, soccer coach, etc.) the better – could you change your picture so that you could be “more like them?”
   • NOTE: “But Hepp, your profile picture is you in a suit!” Exactly – see the previous bullet point – … connect with ‘your’ community
7. Do Not Actively Build Your Friend List: The more people that you can connect with in your community, the better – it will not hurt you to have too many friends on Facebook – well, until you hit the maximum of 5,000
   • Here are 3 ways to grow your “Friends” list:
     • Upload your “Contacts” from your Outlook or Outlook Express
     • View the Friends of the Most Popular people in your community and “Add as Friend” if you think that it is appropriate to do so
     • Search Groups and Fan Pages for Local Organizations like Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Church Groups, etc.
   • NOTE: Just a little bit of advice – create Lists to segment your Friends such as Family, School Friends, Funeral Peers, [Your Town's Name] Connections, etc.  You will thank me later.

I hope that this gets you going on the right track with your Facebook experience.  I have received a lot of feedback from my Newsletter subscribers about their thoughts regarding Facebook which I will go into a little deeper later this week – stay tuned!

…Hepp

PS: What are your thoughts on Facebook and the Funeral Industry?  Have you had any successes (or secure any calls) as a result of Facebook? Please share your thoughts below…

Funeral Home Radio

Host Your Own Funeral Home Radio Show through Podcasting

Although this might be pushing the envelope for everyone save the most tech-savvy funeral director, this is a cost effective initiative would allow a funeral home to start its “narrowcasting” marketing campaign. In the past (and into the future), funeral homes have used forms of “broadcast” media such as newspaper, television, radio, and bulk mailings for “top of mind” awareness.

Not to say that you should stop your broadcast efforts, but with people becoming “information seekers,” your web presence needs to be a deep repository of helpful information. To add to the volumes of text that a funeral home may have on its website, a library of multi-media files such as audio interviews with members of the community relating to end-of-life issues, would further position you as the expert in your industry.

Don’t get spooked about the word “Podcast” – just think of it as “Online Radio” – but if you want the technical definition, here it is . . .

A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of webcast which, like ‘radio’, can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term “podcast” is a portmanteau of the name of Apple’s portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a “pod” refers to a container of some sort, and “cast” to the idea of broadcasting. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

Many industries that podcast, offer regularly scheduled “shows” such as a diaper company backing a podcast by a couple of moms discussing life with toddlers. Other industries that do not have repetitive sales cycles (like diapers) and are more like one-time sales with big price tags can use the power of podcasts. When someone needs to make a big purchase in a short amount of time, baby boomers and younger generations will become information junkies. They will engulf themselves with anything that they can get their hands on to make an informed decision on topics that they previously knew next to nothing about. Could that describe someone who just found out a loved-one died and doesn’t know the first thing about funerals?

How to Get Started

First become an information junkie yourself and Google “podcasting 101” or “getting started in podcasting” for steps needed to claim your spot as the leader of funeral information in your area. From those searches your will find out what you need for equipment, but don’t forget that you probably have a chapel with a microphone system and it is not a large step to tie in recording capabilities with the addition of a $500 computer. (As an aside, for those of you who do not have this set up yet, you could easily record every chapel service and furnish the family with an audio CD versus the cassette option.) You could also take the portable route with a recording device like an iPod or other portable media player with recording capabilities.

Plan your Show & Book your Guests

Make a commitment to having one interview every other month until you get to comfortable enough to have them more frequently. This is not to mean that these shows or interviews have to be the last Wednesday of the month at 4:00 pm. You can actually record some in advance and release them on scheduled basis. When you are thinking who you should interview, just casually ask the clergy on the drive to the cemetery if they would like to be a guest on your program. Also, at your next Chamber or Golf Club Executive meeting, pose the same question to a lawyer, accountant, hospice worker. If you are strategic about this, you can cover a variety of niche topics as well as build new (or deeper) relationships with these community leaders.

(My next “Funeral Home Radio” article will cover the 8 Community Leaders You Should Interview.)

Collateral Benefits

The person will brag to all of their friends that they were interviewed by the funeral home hence virally spreading your firm’s name and website. (Viral means word-of-mouth in Internet terms). Both they and their network will think of you the next time a death occurs.

In addition, you will get a huge boost in the search engines like Google and Yahoo. The benefits are two-fold, first the interviewee will link to your site (their interview) or you should suggest this to them. Second, by transcribing the interviews, or at least have a written recap with excerpts, this content should be included along with the audio file itself – remember, search engines love content.

This is your chance to be the leader of “Funeral and Related Information” in your area – the position is up for grabs so take it!

Hepp, Where Did You Learn This Stuff?

I would have to say that if it wasn’t for podcasts and my iPod we wouldn’t be having this conversation – because you probably wouldn’t know who I am.  Also, I wouldn’t have been able to learn about Websites, SEO, Blogs, Podcasts, and Internet Marketing.

My two mentors in the world of podcasting are Alex Mandossian and Paul Colligan.   If you want to short cut your learning curve on what podcasting is and how it can apply to variety of applications, you may want to consider checking out their Podcast Secrets preview.  It costs $99 and is worth every penny.  Even better news is that you can save $79 if you use this code: PC916 – so you will only have to pay $20.  If you are are interested, go here: >> Hepp’s Podcast Mentors <<

Are You Already A Online Radio Show Host?

Please share your experiences in podcasting or hosting your own, online radio show in the box below.

Also feel free to ask any questions that you may have about podcasting below. . .

. . . Hepp

Funeral Home Marketing: John Callaghan on the Hot Seat

You’ve heard of John Callaghan, haven’t you?

To refresh your memory, he’s one of the industry’s top speakers on funeral home marketing.

In his new book, “2009 Strategic Marketing Plan for Funeral Service Professionals” he reveals how funeral homes should market in during tough economic times.

Why am I telling you this?

I’m telling you this because I convinced John to allow me to grill him during a LIVE 120-minute teleseminar on January 30!

It actually went for 2 1/2 hours.

We talked for just over an hour about his book and then we tackled dozens of questions that the attendees submitted.

You can read a partial list of questions below.

If you would like to listen to the recording, you can get it for only $10 – (that’s only $4 /hour)

==>> Get the Recordings Here <<==

If you want to a copy of his book, 2009 Strategic Marketing Plan for Funeral Service Professionals, a copy of the recording, plus a bonus interview where I had a brainstorming session about Strategic Planning for Funeral Homes with university business professor, Dr. Brent Mainprize, you can order it now for the price of the book ($49 + shipping)

==>> Get the Book and the 2 Recordings Here <<==

If you follow John’s recommendations, you will save money on advertising, get better results with your marketing, and overall, Attract More Calls!

…Hepp

Partial List of Questions

• Could you discuss the use of tasteful humor in funeral home marketing?
• Telephones, yellow page ads – How do you set yourself apart?
• How do I market my firm against the “low price firm” in the market place?
• What are your thoughts on marketing during tough economic times? Is it actually a time when you can get more bang for your buck, attract a wider audience etc?
• How do we use permission marketing in funeral service, especially with the increasing use of online guest books and internet communications with our customers?
• With a downtown location and smaller parking area, how do you compete with funeral home not downtown and more parking area?
• What is the most effective advertising in a small rural community? Should we sponsoring and attending community events, sponsor information seminars, weekly newspaper ads, local magazines etc?
• Are there new words in the death care language that are more acceptable to the public?
• What kind of ad and or marketing should a funeral home do in response to a cremation society’s direct mailing piece that they continue to do in our community?
• When asked why our funeral home was chosen, my family follow up surveys reflect that I receive 0 calls from advertising. How should I interpret this?
• How do you get the message out to Hospice that there are many more options for a family other than direct cremation?
• What would the best way to market a second location in the next city with two corporate competitors presently operate there?
• How do you determine what are the most effective strategies?
• When conducting market research in my area, what are some good sources for Secondary data or information regarding the opinions and buying preferences of ANY of my target markets?
• I’m in a small market. How do I attract more calls, when it appears, my competitor has more money for unlimited advertising?
• How can I get people out of the mindset that cremation means no viewing?
• I’m losing market share to a new funeral home, How can I combat an upstate with a better location?
• If we have a web site, what are the best strategies to make certain that someone using a search engine, such as Google, will see our listing at the top of the results list? Are there other techniques that can be used in addition to the “keywords” that are embedded into the pages of the site?
• What is the best way to counteract, “I want the cheapest funeral?
• I am an independent operated firm in my town with two other firms who are corporate run, what can I do in ads to beat them as competitors?
• What medium is the best advertising in a conservative area?

Free Funeral Website Report

Let me ask you a question… Does your web company have your best interests in heart?

As you know, I have been in the funeral home website game for a long time – over 10 years. And in the last few years I have stepped back from the sales side and focused on teaching you about how to build your web presence beyond your website – like with YouTube, Facebook, etc. – mainly because the web site companies weren’t helping their clients beyond the confines of their product offerings (your current website).

Lately I have received some questions from funeral professionals like you asking me about their websites. They think that they are getting ripped-offed… and after looking in to it, I agree!

So lets do a quick test…ok? And we will see if your web site company has your best interests at heart?

Here’s the Quick Test:

On your site…on your homepage (or worse – all pages), is there a link back to their website? It’s usually at the bottom of the page.

If you have answered: YES – then they fail the test!

Your benefit to having links to their site: NOTHING – do your clients really need to know who you do business with? Actually these backlinks could be HURTING you!

Your Web Co’s benefit: backlinks are one of the most important factors that Google uses to rank websites. So what this means is that not only are they getting free advertising on your site, but you are giving them a boost in the search results – off of your back – that’s not cool!

Ideally, those links at the bottom of the page should point to pages within your site.

If you want to learn the truth about funeral home websites and find out the 4 other secrets funeral home website companies don’t want you to know, plus other myths, scams, and misconceptions…

Download the Special Industry Report: The Funeral Home Manager’s Guide to Websites: Myths, Misconceptions and Secrets at: Funeral Website Secrets

I wrote this for funeral professionals like you so that you would finally know the truth about funeral home websites.

I have had one funeral director ask me why am I giving this information out now?

Well, some of the website companies in our industry are beginning to act like old, stodgy, non-proactive funeral directors (not progressive funeral professionals like you) – so I felt it necessary to clear the air.

Then he said, “Are you trying to get back into selling funeral home websites?”

Well, the truth be known – I never left – I just kept a low profile working with some private clients, and now I am going to make that part of my offerings more public…but it’s not going to be for everyone.

You see, I look at websites from a marketing and relationship building perspective – not solely from the technology side. These sites are not for everyone – if a funeral home owner is looking for a cheap website – don’t ask me, there are a lot of low-end offerings out there – or free ones from casket companies.

My sites are going to be focused on 3 things:

• communicating with your community (building relationships / loyalty)
• your firm becoming an “Authority” in Google’s eyes
• and eventually your website becoming a profit center for your firm

Anyway, enough about my websites, there will be many examples in the future, and plus I am still going to continue to share my strategies and case studies on my website. So make sure that you read the Special Industry Report on Funeral Websites at Funeral Website Secrets

I would love your thoughts on the report, so if you could do me a small favor and leave your comments below – thanks!

All of the best for 2009!

…Hepp

PS: Check out the complete report card in the Report and see if your website company is doing everything they can for you! Download the Funeral Home Web Site Guide here

Part 1 – Intro: Relationship Marketing for Funeral Homes

This is the follow-up presentation to my live presentation at the Selected Independent Convention in Washington, DC. I have decided to break up this presentation into 5 parts as the recording of the web seminar was almost 2 hours long.  I would strongly suggest that you watch them in order.  Please provide your feedback and also – PLEASE – if you do apply any of these strategies, please let me know – I love it when people take action!

Please give me your feedback below…

Part 2 – Social Networks: Relationship Marketing for Funeral Homes

This is the 1st section of the presentation where we talk about Social Networks like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.  This video is XX minutes long.  See the text below the video for links to the “Letter to Families” mentioned in the video as well as a link to all of my Social Networks.

Resources:

• Letter To Bereaved Families
• Hep’s Social Network Links

Please give me your feedback below…

Part 3 – Written Word: Relationship Marketing for Funeral Homes

In this section we key on the written word, whether it is by email, blog post, RSS, auto responder or email newsletter. Email is still the # 1 use of the Internet – watch this 20:40 minute video to see how you can apply these relationship building strategies.

Resources:

• Aweber – auto responder and email newsletter program
• Google Reader – saves time, aggregates RSS subscriptions into one place

Please give me your feedback below…

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